Filmmaker Hiona Henare uses memory to recite the names of ten ancestors from her Ngai Tara and Ngai Te Ao whakapapa. She uses sound and vision like coding, in order to access memories from her unconscious and subconscious mind. Perhaps viewers will perhaps experience something 'spiritual' with the work, but the artist maintains that wairua cannot be controlled in the same way as we can control technology. In the film, Henare repeats her ancestors' names twice, which she describes as "an exponential koha for her whānau."
The artist acknowledges the Wairarapa Moana Trust for the recording of "Nau Mai E Tama" (2007). The karakia has been in their family for 20 generations and was composed by the tohunga, Tuhoto-Ariki, for the birth of Tūteremoana. Both ancestors are also remembered in Henare's work.
Actors: Lawrence Makoare, Ratu Tibble, Tamai Nicholson, and Isis Bradley Kiwi.
